Tomoko Masuzawa's 'The Invention Of World Religions'

The Invention of World Religions Book Review Tomoko Masuzawa’s literary work, The Invention of World Religions, provides a meticulous analysis of how the term “world religions” is categorized and used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Masuzawa addresses how the categorization of world religions has changed throughout history and how different elements of each religion, such as texts, origin, and ability to expand have shaped the classification of that religion by scholars. By using the works of well-established scholars, she is able to provide an accurate account of how the perception and analysis of these religious occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Institutions within the public domain, such as universities and hospitals, can then shape interaction with their specific audiences to abide by the practices of these world (universal) religions in order to interface with the public in a culturally competent manner. Masuzawa analyzes the different characteristics of a religion that have influenced its placement in the national or universal religion categories. In order to be identified as a world religion, criteria such as “the naming of an extraordinary yet

He was able to form a list of five world religions that were known “to gather a particularly large number of confessors (Masuzawa, 306)” This requirement allowed Hinduism and Confucianism to be considered world religions. This is in direct opposition to Otto Pfleiderer who chose to analyze the quality or the “intrinsic nature of the religion” as opposed to the number of followers (Masuzawa, 200). Based on the conditions set in place by the nineteenth-century scholars, what Weber believed to be world religions were, in fact, national religions. This shows that depending on the aspects of the religions chosen to be analyzed, religions could be considered either national or